Promoting both privacy and openness might sound like a paradox, but not to the information commissioner, Richard Thomas. His instincts are with the individual, whether they are battling to get their hands on papers that the government would rather keep secret or trying to safeguard their privacy by ensuring that personal secrets are treated with respect. Happily, he has wide powers to help them on both fronts. Both policeman and judge on matters of who knows what, Mr Thomas also regards his position as a platform from which to speak out. He did so yesterday, lambasting big companies, such as Orange, that he says are slipshod about customer confidentiality. His earlier targets have included ministers seeking to dilute freedom of information and MPs trying to exempt themselves from it. That takes courage for a public official, but Mr Thomas is not short of that. He started his career at a Citizens Advice Bureau in west London supporting tenants against slum landlords - who showed their gratitude by getting thugs to smash his office windows. Having exposed a thriving trade in private data from systems that are meant to be secure, Mr Thomas is more aware than most of the practical risks facing a society that is content to drift on a technological tide towards ever more surveillance. The risks could reach new heights, he has warned, with an ill-thought-through ID-cards database. Should this arrive citizens will need, more than ever, a reliable ally against big brother.